LETTER: U.S. Rep. John Faso was a hypocrite on the floor of the House

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Dear Editor,

On June 8, something truly ironic happened in Washington, courtesy of my congressman, U.S. Rep. John Faso, R-Kinderhook.

As U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., used her allotted time to comment on the floor of the House of Representatives — discussing pending legislation designed to ease rules on banks and weaken consumer financial protections — Faso tried to shout her down.

The irony is that Faso clearly likes to think of himself as a person who places a high value on decorum. After all, that’s the reason he has offered for his failure over the last six months to hold a single open town hall meeting with constituents anywhere in his district. Because those meetings might involve interruptions from the public, Faso says they’re not productive and he won’t engage in them. How does he square this position with his own incongruent behavior toward his much senior colleague?

Pelosi kept her cool as Faso interrupted her not once, not twice, but four times, even as the House Speaker pro tempore, Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-Okla., repeatedly reminded Faso that Pelosi controlled the time and was under no obligation to yield.

Was Faso’s nasty treatment of his colleague just about the legislation under discussion? I suspect a different reason. Perhaps Faso went after Pelosi because of her announcement earlier in the week, alongside Gov. Andrew Cuomo, that she and Cuomo plan to work together to unseat upstate Republicans, like Faso, whose votes have betrayed New Yorkers. There’s no irony or surprise there: Faso’s favoring of billionaires over constituents is well established by his voting record.